Crystal Palace smashed by hammers

Crystal Palace’s troubled start to the season continued when they were comfortably defeated at home by West Ham on Saturday. New signing Mauro Zarate scored a spectacular goal followed by a second by Stewart Downing just before half-time. Marouane Chamakh’s goal for Palace provided a brief glimmer of hope in the second half, before Carlton Cole (‘always believe in your soul,…….’) sealed Palace’s fate with a third strike.

This second defeat of the campaign increases the pressure on chairman Steve Parish to appoint a new manager, after Tony Pulis left the club less than 2 days before the start of the campaign, followed by the doomed attempt to appoint Malky Mackay.

As for West Ham, could this signal a transition to a more attacking style of play from Sam Allardyce’s side, that fans and the board have been calling for? It certainly looks like the appointment of Teddy Sheringham as a striker coach has already made an impact, and it’ll please fans and all in the West Ham camp to see the training introduced by Teddy bear fruit with such immediate effect.